Baby Animals

Spring is the best time to see baby animals in the wild. If you go to a place with a lot of wildlife, you might see deer with little fawns, raccoons teaching their babies what to eat, or little birds learning to fly.

Keep your distance from these happy families, and you can watch them for as long as you want. Using a pair of binoculars will give you an even better view.

In the springtime, you might come across baby animals and birds that look like they’ve been abandoned. It’s very important that you leave these babies alone.

Wild animals are excellent parents who know what they’re doing. They’re probably hiding nearby, waiting for you to go away so they can return and take care of their babies.

Some animal parents hide their babies on purpose. Deer fawns, for instance, sit very quietly every day, waiting for their mothers return in the evening. Sometimes baby birds that are learning to fly fall out of the nest and land on the ground. If you find a bird like this, don’t worry! The parents will keep feeding the baby until it learns to fly.

Wildlife Watching Tips

Nothing is more exciting than spotting a wild animal when you’re out in the wilderness. No matter how big or small the animal is, it’s fun to watch it living its life—hunting for food, building its home, or exploring its territory. If you’re patient and observant, you can catch wild animals doing some fascinating things. You might see chipmunks chase each other up and down trees, watch rabbits eating, or see a deer strolling through a field. These tips will help you have a great wildlife-watching experience.

Keep Your DistanceMost wildlife encounters end because the animals scurries away. That almost always happens because it’s spotted you and is afraid of what you might do. If you want to animal to stay, so you can watch it longer, you’ll need to do two things: keep very quiet, and don’t get too close. How close is too close, you ask? If you see the animal looking at you or adjusting its behavior because of you, then you’re too close. Take very slow steps backward and you just might convince the animal that it’s safe enough to stay.

Move SlowlyStrange as it sounds, most animals of the world assume that you’re a hunter who wants to eat them. If you want to see animals in the wild, it’s your job to convince the animals that you’re safe to be around. Quick movements seem dangerous to animals, so hold very still—it’s handy to pretend that you’re a rock. If you have to move, to scratch your nose for instance, move your hand very slowly.

Stay QuietQuiet is very important to wild animals. In the animal world, everything is either a hunter or prey. If it’s a prey animal—an animal that gets eaten by other animals—then it has to stay quiet to keep from being heard and caught. If it’s a hunting animal, it needs to keep quiet so it can sneak up on its prey. In other words, nothing in the animal world is noisy. Being noisy would ruin its chances of finding a good meal or living another day, so of course animals are quiet!

If you want to see animals, it’s important that you be quiet, too. Animals will never come near somebody who’s shouting or singing or laughing loudly. To them, that sounds like trouble. If you’re having a hard time spotting any animals, try sitting down in one place and seeing how long you can keep quiet. Odds are that, before you’re done, you’ll have spotted a wild creature of some kind.

Timing Is EverythingAnimals are most active in the early morning and at dusk. If you want to see wildlife, you need to be out at that time of day, too. Compromise on this with your family. If they don’t want to get up early, see if you can take a walk at dusk. If dusk is when your family’s busy making dinner, ask if an early-morning hike is something everyone would enjoy.

Be CarefulSome wild animals can be very dangerous—too dangerous to watch unless you’re in a zoo or special wildlife sanctuary. Bears, alligators, moose, bison, wolves, and all types of wild cats (lynx, bobcat, mountain lion, jaguars) are all animals you should only watch when there are grown-ups with you. If you’re out on your own and you see one of these animals, leave right away and go tell a grown up. There are safe ways to watch these animals, so if you’re really eager to see one, tell your parents and they can help you see a bear or a wolf in a safe place.